William M. Childress (1867–1940) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player who pitched in one game for the

Louisville Colonels The Louisville Colonels were a Major League Baseball team that also played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until 1891. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

on July 27, 1895. He allowed two hits, walked five, threw three wild pitches, and allowed six runs to score—all without recording an out. As this was his only major league appearance, he is credited with an infinite career

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

, and is the first such player who exclusively played as a pitcher.

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1867 births 1940 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Louisville Colonels players Baseball players from Tennessee 19th-century baseball players {{Baseball-pitcher-stub